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Sunday, January 3, 2010

"How am I on time this month?" you may ask. Cuz I planned ahead! Instead of making the list of Austin's new accomplishments by memory, I did it as the month went along. See! I have my smart moments! It also helped that his month-day fell on a weekend, cuz it's getting even harder to get a pic of this kid sitting still!

New this month!

Austin knows the sounds of several animals. Before it was just the cat, which made a very staccato "mao" sound. Sometimes it was even a silent cat and just his mouth moved. But now he knows dog, turkey, and lion/tiger/bear. Occasionally he'll do "cow" and we're working on a few others. One day we were going over animal sounds and I asked "What does a Moose say?" without really thinking and I didn't really have a good answer. So I put my hands on my head like antlers and said "I'm a Moose!" Well, Austin thought that was hilarious, so now that's what moose says in our house. He'll sometimes put his hands on the side of his head if you ask what a moose says.

My boy loves bubbles! We try to get out in the front yard or down to the park on dry days and chase bubbles. He really likes them inside the house too. Our carpet is like 12 years old and is just pitiful, so I really have no qualms about whatever damage the bubbles are doing to it! Plus there's the added bonus that the bubbles don't pop right away on the carpet. They sit there long enough for him to get them. And apparently it's almost as much fun to carry around the bubble container.

He is thoroughly enjoying his Christmas presents. Doesn't quite understand putting the legos together, but boy are they fun to dump out of the box! He's getting pretty good at his puzzles and loves to sit in his new big boy chairs that Nani & Papa got him. We are working on learning to color and the chairs help focus that activity much better than standing. Grandma Judy got him a ride-along dumptruck and he loves to be pushed around on that a bunch. It's so fun to see him discovering new toys. His new talking Elmo was a hit too.

He's become a picky eater! He used to eat everything you put in front of him, but now he will randomly decide that something doesn't even smell good and won't try it. Any suggestions here would be appreciated! I don't want mealtime to be a battle but I do want him to learn to try things. Thankfully there are enough things that he does like that he gets a small variety of foods, but I feel like the list is small and the same from day to day.

He just started loving to dance. The Elmo Live helped a bunch with this. He knows how to make it turn on and will dance to the music. It's so cute! But unfortunately he really only has me as an example of how to dance and sadly, I'm pretty bad. I'm afraid I'm teaching him bad skills! His daddy isn't much better, so hopefully someone will come along someday and teach our son how to dance well. What he does now is so cute, but I don't think it will get him far in high school!

Oh I love my son's laugh! One of my favorite games is "Kissy Torture" where I pin him down with his hands above his head and kiss him all over his face and belly. (It's similar to Tickle Torture but having been the victim of that game too many times, I vowed to not do that to my kids too much!! Sometimes tickling hurts! So that's why we do kisses.) The giggles and laughs that come out of him are just awesome! He laughs like that when playing with Brian too. I love watching them rough house!

He has a new game where he comes and pushes us down and tackles us. He makes this "Ahhhhh" sound as he does it, which we think is an imitation of us saying "Oh!! You got me!" Sometimes he'll just come and push on your legs and make that sound and he expects you to fall to the ground.

Like I said above, we're working on learning to color. He is much more interested in taking the crayons in and out of the box than actually coloring with them. He's a good little organizer, just like his daddy! Occasionally he will commit some art to paper though. We're making progress.

He loves to make other people smile. Everywhere we go now, he waves hello to everyone we see. And he will do so repeatedly until they see him and reciprocate. If they don't notice him, I can tell his feelings are hurt. Restaurants are fun - he makes friends with everyone around us. It's so fun to see him bringing smiles to other people's faces. What a wonderful gift! I hope he always brings people joy!!

He's learning parts of the body. He's known what hair is for a while, but anytime you'd ask him where something else was (nose, mouth, eyes, etc) he'd still point to his hair. I think he was focusing on the "Where" part of the question more than the whole question. But now he can point to his nose, ears, mouth, eyes, belly button, toes and stick out his tongue. He can occasionally distinguish between "Your nose" & "My/Momma's nose".

Austin is still very obsessed with Veggie Tales videos. If you're sitting at the computer he will come over and point and sign "please, please" and try to climb on your lap. We try not to overdo it - He gets to watch about once or twice a day and just a few 3 minute videos each time - but he definitely would watch all day if you let him! He gets very into the videos too. He bounces along with the beat and will clap at the end of the song and then ask for another. He got an actual DVD from Nani for Christmas and sits mesmerized at it!

He is just starting to enjoy being read to. He doesn't quite have the attention span for it, but he's getting better. He will bring you a book and turn around to be picked up. But he doesn't always let you read the book. He will sometimes close it after just a few pages, ask to get down and then proceed to hand you the same book and ask to be picked up again. Not sure what that's all about. Maybe I'm reading it wrong??

He's a sweet little kisser. Gone are the big messy kisses. (Well, most of the time!) If you ask for a kiss, he will usually promptly come over and give you a sweet peck on the lips. (I figure I better get my fill now while he's too young to be embarrassed by giving Mom kisses!) My favorite is when you ask him to blow kisses though. He blows a kiss into his hand and then puts his hand up for you to kiss too! And if there are several people around at the time, everyone is asked to kiss his hand! Sometimes he makes several rounds!

He's becoming quite the kleptomaniac! He will snag whatever his little hands can reach on the counter or the dining table. He's pretty tall and can reach farther than you think he should be able to. And if he's lucky there will be something on the floor for him to climb on to get just that extra inch or two of reach! It's funny to watch him flail his little hand back and forth until it hits something. He hardly cares what he snags - everything is a treasure! I have to be careful to put my purse far enough onto the table or otherwise he'll pull it down and start pulling everything out. Including my wallet and all my money!